Video: Corvette Racing Team Preps For New Baltimore Course

It takes a lot of effort, simulation, and relying on knowledge gained from the past for a race team to properly prepare for a brand new street course. In this new video Chevrolet posted on YouTube, S2: Track to Street, Episode 8, we get a chance to follow the Corvette Racing Team as they make their preparations to run in the American Le Mans Series’ (ALMS) first ever race in Baltimore, Maryland, coming up this weekend.

Since this is the inaugural ALMS race in Baltimore, the race teams don’t have much data to go off of in prepping their cars. Dan Binks, Crew Chief of the #3 Car for Corvette Racing, tells us, “We know that all street races are similar, so we know sort of what to expect: low grip, bumpy, and jumps.” Corvette Racing does know what the lay out of the track will be, and they can use simulation software to help make decisions on how to set up the car.

However, simulations are still just simulations, and there are just too many variables to accurately prep the car without doing several real-world test runs. Oliver Gavin, driver of the Corvette Racing #4 Car says, “I love these situations where everyone has to start at zero. You know when you first go out that it’s going to be a real roll of the dice… It’s going to be the people that get themselves there and are the best prepared; they are going to be the fastest, and be able to learn the most in that first session when we get to run [the cars].”